NEW DELHI: It was a nightlong farewell party for high-denomination notes in top cities with several luxury and fashion brands extending store closure deadline well past midnight on Tuesday to let consumers splurge their big currency notes one last time.

But the luxury market woke up to hard reality on Wednesday when shops largely remained empty and many store managers predicted a sharp fall in their sales in the days to come.

Soon after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced withdrawal of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes post midnight on Tuesday, luxury retailers such as Ethos, which retails luxury watch brands like Rolex, Brogue, Carl F Bucherer and Dior sent mailers and notifications to clients stating their stores would be open till midnight for customers.

A store manager at one of the leading global fashion brands said her store remained open till 8 in the morning on Wednesday and it sold merchandise worth more than Rs 1 crore in less than three hours.

“There were long queues at the billing counter as people tried to dispense with their cash. We billed in excess of Rs 1 crore within three hours. We billed the merchandise sold post midnight by raising backdated invoices,” she said on condition of anonymity.